Here are
some thoughts about loving bliss and practices for this, loosely assembled.

I'm curious
about loving bliss from the perspective of neurophysiology, after the
at least thousands of generations that precede us, and with potentially
thousands more ahead, for those who have children. I've had many experiences
of this, which I don't associate with either religious or spiritual language.

I'm not sure
people want to read about my experiences, but might instead enjoy reading
ways in which they might 'access' loving bliss naturally, although, in
brief, here are my experiences with it. Roughly from ages 1-6 were very
fun years, coming into language with friends, and with my very fun mother
- loving bliss was 'in the air' {i.e. in our bodyminds} ... and here too:
on the island where I've grown up in summers in Massachusetts, when I
was head sailing instructor there some years ago working with kids, and
organizing a talent show in the evenings, and also while hiking the Pacific
Crest Trail for four months in California and Oregon a year later. I've
also experienced loving bliss at North Pacific Yearly Meeting (Quaker)
in the early 1980s, and in the pools at Harbin Hot Springs - http://harbin.org
- as well as in the milieu of Harbin, and sometimes while contra-dancing,
and while listening to Mozart's arias in "The Magic Flute,"
{e.g. 'Queen of the Night' arias ~> neural cascades of pleasure}, and
when I've loved some women in the past – a lot.

Loving bliss
doesn't occur for me continually in these examples, and these examples
represent a variety of qualities of it, but it is these experiences, thoughts
and neurophysiology I enjoy, find fascinating and wish to explore further
with friends. I've also had these experiences while caring for others.
They are each a kind of 'flow' experience (see Csikszentmihalyi's "Flow:
The Psychology of Optimal Experience").

Philosophically
and neurophysiologically only, I think ecstasy (MDMA - methylene_dioxy_meth_amphetamine)
is a fascinating, reference experience. The above experiences all loosely
relate to what I imagine MDMA {ecstasy} experiences to offer. Such neurochemistry
suggests that these processes are biological, and not supernatural or
spiritual (as some might suggest), and ingesting such a compound suggests
also that there is a kind of threshold across which these states emerge.
While the
following definition doesn't fully explain what loving bliss is for me,
it does involve experiences that are deeply, gratefully
harmonizing,and reciprocally appreciative and affectionate,
both with a friend or friends, and alone, as well as profoundly and naturally
high at the same time, and which are ongoing, biological, 'flow' experiences.
{What is it for you?} So I think one can access loving bliss, and while
I'm a little 'wired' for it - I think it's part of my neurophysiology
- I'm interested in exploring the threshold effect idea, where we can
think about, create and enter into these fugue-like states, naturally
and extensively.

And while it's part
of other people's neurophysiologies - - Kenneth Boulding's (Quaker economist
and poet) comment, at Olney Friends' School in Barnesville, Ohio, when
asked about his cheeriness: "Oh," (he chortled in his English
accent – I've met him before) "it's glandular," - I think
loving bliss is accentuated also by idealistic and intelligent discourse.

But I haven't
had these experiences all the time, and don't have, and I'm curious about
accessing this neurophysiology in an almost naturally emergent way, perhaps
by doing less - wu wei {non-action in the Taoist writers' Lao
Tzu or Chuang Tzu's senses},
- or as if one were surfing a wave, or singing a line of music rapturously
and floating on this, or as easily and freely as 'googling' information
and surfing the World Wide Web, and how, when, and for as long as one
wants. How can one begin to just let loving bliss happen, and then welcome
it on and on? {The pacifism, simplicity, integrity, open-endedness and
focus on goodness of Quaker, silent meeting, as well as the relaxation
response, seems to provide possible bases. How to let loving bliss emerge
with awareness, and flower profoundly and profusely as it's beginning
to bubble up in one's bodymind are questions, and experiences, I'm exploring.
Let's explore this together, over decades.

I'm also
interested in thinking out of the box – outside familiar patterns
and norms, which is something (nontheist) Friends have explored historically
(with conscientious objection to war, fighting and violence, for example)
- to explore how to access loving bliss fully. Click on the 'notes' here
for further thoughts about this - scottmacleod.com/yoga.htm}.

How to imagine
and envision the kind of loving bliss you want, and then realize this?
Sometimes loving bliss just bubbles up for me, - especially in beautiful,
natural areas, in the Harbin Hot Springs' pools, and in silent meeting,
among many places. While a beautiful place can help cultivate bliss, omega-3
fatty acids (1000 mg flax seed oil, 3-4 times per day with food) may also
be helpful. And nontheist friends, with the possibility of shaping friendly
language that doesn't invoke the supernatural, but where loving bliss
arises partly vis-à-vis
an emergent language and culture, may also facilitate this. So, for me,
both Harbin Hot Springs with its wonderful milieu, as well as the open-ended
form of the unprogrammed, nontheist tradition of the Society of Friends
(Quaker), offer interesting contexts in which to explore these questions,
neurophysiology and language.

I'd love to explore
and find ways with you to give rise to the wondrous weather of loving
bliss in our bodyminds, whenever we want it, freely and with personal
freedom, and in so many ways.